Home-schoolers program

Home-schoolers program
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Recognizing that more pupils are learning at home, the Carnegie Museum of Natural History will host for the first time an all-day program for home-schoolers.
As many as 150 pupils are expected to attend Tuesday's program, spending the day exploring various activity stations throughout the Pittsburgh museum. The number of home-schooled pupils in Pennsylvania has increased over the last decade from 8,500 to 24,000 last year.
"Every institution in the Pittsburgh area has recognized that this audience is an important audience to reach," said program director Karen Tingley.
Allegheny County ranks third in home-schoolers in the state with 1,299 pupils in the 2001-02 school year. Parents take their children out of traditional schools for various reasons, including religion, ideology, social struggles and academic reasons.
"We did it for our own beliefs and partially because of not wanting our children to get lost in the system," said Bobbie Lewis, 54, of Shaler, who home-schools her two children, Sarah, 14, and Tim, 12.